Blender 2.8 Beta Is Now Available!
We’ve now officially entered the Beta phase of development for Blender 2.8. That means all the major features are in place, and the Blender core developers start focusing on bug fixes and polishing features based on user feedback. For users this means there will be fewer disruptive changes.
Sweet! Now i need to get used to all of this. Downloaded it for the first time yesterday….. its a bit overwhelming how much is changed. Its almost like im doing this for the first time :)
Hope viewport gets faster because it is much slower
Yea, it’s jarring enough seeing Blender video tutorials starting to use the new UI, I imagine fully transitioning to it for my default workflow is going to be a beast of an adjustment.
*sings obnoxious Madonna impression:
“Like a newbie, Blendering for the very first time!”
Hehe so true
Nooooooo!
My brain’s gonna sing this all day long.
Please, mercy, please!
Hahah EPIC comment!!!
But sadly very true, The more i try the more i dislike these “new” horizontal UI. What an AWFUL decision to do this. Everything is hidden in menu’s which need to be clicked to open. You cant view settings like prior. Its like doing a scavenger hunt or so. This is NOT useful for newbies at all. Prior you could open some settings panels and view all settings. This is not possible anymore. Only the sculpt workspace has quite some options visible in that new weird settings tab. Which actually copies all settings from the horizontal sub setting panel.
I hope so that this will revert or change. I saw this video today of Julien Kasper doing an talk at blender conference. It was about speeds sculpt. But all the settings are hidden, how can that speedup your workflow??? Shortcuts which have been taken out is a second major thing.
This new UI setup with horizontal sub settings panels is HORRIBLE!
PS he mentioned an addon PIE MENU ADDON. Which makes it possible to add tons of extra panels everywhere. This adds so much functionality back which 2.79 had as a base.
I found it quite ironic he even mentioned it. This was from a person working with 2.80 for a year already. How do you think new comers will cope with this???
This UI is seems to be more focused on people which know where settings are. Its the complete opposite of what newcomers would expect. There hiding EVERYTHING in menu’s and dropdowns. Well thats is handy, NOT!
Nice the beta is out. But what’s going on with the latest UI changes? Default is right-click again, the splash screen does not show the choices regarding selection and spacebar, Settings was renamed to Preferences again … Seems strange to me.
I seems that it is using your old settings (this is not a clean/new install, just a beta). Try factory resetting (warning, you will loose any setting you have).
I have experienced the same “issue”. I do want it to be LEFT CLICK, but I am using multiple Blender and I want 2.79 to stay as it is, but 2.8 with LMB or RMB button settings. Is this something that can be changed on the fly?
Use the zipped versions and create a folder called config inside the 2.xx folder.
Every version will have its own settings.
I dont know which OS your using, but normally each version makes its own main folder inside the Blender folder. Ive been installing blender versions aside of each other for years. Never had any issue.
Im even running all addonds in 2.79 from 2.78 folder by pointing the main folder that folder. Works like charm
Rombout, Which version of OS are you using?
This version does not seem to want to work with a Yosemite 10.10.5
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!
For clarification, when you state that if we run out of GPU memory with hybrid rendering enabled, gpus + cpus, we will be able to use system memory to keep the gpus rendering? Does this mean the gpus will continue to render as well, or will they drop out of the equation and only cpus will continue to render?
They continue rendering along with your cpu. Just make sure to have your tile size smaller in the performance tab for best results.
So does the GPU somehow access system ram when it runs out of ram on the GPU?
wow!
Cogratulation to the dev team!!
Talking about features, Is the creasing from opensubdiv active in 2.80 beta?
The creasing looks the same as before, not like some videos I’ve seen of opensubdiv creasing.
Congrats!!! Kol hakavod!
Finally!!! Is there a video and a website which lists all shortcut changes and function?
I think this is the most excited I’ve been for a Blender release in years. This looks really great.
Awesome
I discover polybuild!! Superb stuff
Simple question – if I download Blender 2.8 will it override 2.79 ? I want to keep using 2.79 as well as learning about 2.8 . Most of all I don’t want to lose my 2.79 files
It’s ok to have both, because you will download a zip package. Then, unzip it on a folder of your choice. You can create a folder, for example, on C > Documents, and name the folder as “Blender2.8”.
If you use windows, you can create a shortcut in your workspace area.
The only thing I don’t know if it’s possible is open both versions ate the same time…
Yes, it is. But can get really slow depending on what you’re doing/ your hardware.
Don’t forget to isolate user settings by creating /2.xx/config
Ok! And thank you for this tip about the config!!
Please, can you explain what do you mean with “creating /2.xx/config”?
Thanks
Sure, open up a zipped version of Blender. There will be a folder called 2.79 (2.80 in case of the Beta). If you create a folder inside it called config your user settings, startup file etc. will be stored there instead of somewhere in your system’s user files. Now you can haveultiple Blenders side by side each with it’s own configurations. Very handy in case of conflicting Add-ons or if you want to use Blender from a USB stick.
Great, thanks for the explanation.
You dont need to isolate user settings. All settings are isolated by default under their own version. Thats has been the case always. You can run multiple blender version at once and even can multiple instance of the same blender version
True, 2.79 settings and 2.80’s won’t collide. Didn’t think of that right away. I still think the localized settings way is superior and more people should know about and use it. I also think nobody should use the Windows installer. It shouldn’t even exist.
But everyone to his own taste.
Thank you – That’s exactly the help i needed – much appreciated
you won’t lose them. But please don’t open a 2.79 file in 2.80 and save to the same name. There is no backwards compatibility.
Thanks very much – That’s very useful to know – could have gone horribly wrong with that :) Saved me some swearing !
Oops, very well remembered! We have to save files with a different name under version 2.8 or the file will no more open properly on version 2.79.
Thanks for this tip!
Blender 2.8 is in Beta already? Oh my. Wasn’t expecting that until the end of the year given the major changes… no not this year, the next year.
I tried it! Finally! Left Mouse Click select is not as bad. Still accidentally right click, but it’s good. I will be using both Blender 2.79 and 2.8 anyway. I can get used to this new habit.
Spacebar is now playback and CTRL+F is the special menu command.
Everything else seems pretty solid. I found a bug while testing the LMB click select.
How can you get used to using 2 different methods of selecting??? This also means tons of other methods change as well.
I just downloaded on 3 systems: Ubuntu 16, Ubuntu 18 and windows 10. On Ubuntu 16 unfortunately Blender crashes and also makes crash all the system. But I’m not complying, because it’s a very old Ubuntu version (that I love). Under Ubuntu 18 and windows 10 Blender 2.8 is working nice and smoothly until now.
And I have to take a bow: Blender was always a powerful software, but never so powerful as it is now!!
Is it just me or Shift+F3 for Shader Editor doesn’t work anymore?
And Eevee still doesn’t support Movie texture yet right?
Everything else feels solid!
If you preview the video texture with the IMAGE/UV editor visible in another panel, then the movie texture should work, at least png-sequences do work. So have the panel open if you want to render. But my experience has been that it is limted to one movie per scene. Maybe they have changed it by now.
When shader cavity comes to the cycles ?
Very good that development finally goes on right direction, moving to useful conventions that most use including hardware conventions. I know this some of this might be a temporary pain to Blender veterans but i think it will not be too difficult.
For me that uses several other application from 3DsMa, C4D, mechanical CAD for 3D printing it great i don’t have to shift too much my brain just to use Blender.
I’ll be testing with my Wacom.
All I can say is that coming from other applications to Blender, when I discovered Blenders right click option, as default, starting with 2.4b, eventually all of my wrist pain whet away. But the switch is easy to turn it back on. So all is good.
The black and white icons are so disaster.i cant find easy with visual searching.
look at the microsoft new icons designing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YplAU5myNP4&feature=youtu.be
I agree. After all the brilliant and massive achievements in 2.80, somebody made those Properties tab icons indistinct and hard to tell apart or learn. It’s such a basic UI mistake.
One of them looks like a printer (I think) but Blender doesn’t do print output. Another looks like it’s for adding cones, but it’s actually ‘Scene’. And the Constraints icon is meaningless. And with no colour to help remember the one you want ;-(
IIRC
The thing is that those icons, at some point, shall be themeable by the user. At least in terms of colour. Therefore they are monochromatic for now.
Yes, Microsoft knows how to conquer the public, and Blender, not so much…
This new version is so powerful!! It deserves better graphic representation.
More Feedback:
When using Node Editor for Shader, connecting Image Texture output to slot is sometimes does not work. It’s a bug I think. MacOS.
Do we know when the industry compatible key map will be ready? I’m an longtime CG guy and I just can’t get my old fingers retrained…
You are make blender great again!
Why does the splash screen have such lovely coloured icons? I thought all distinctively coloured icons had been banned in Blender? ;-)
Will you ever stop nagging about the monochromatic color scheme? It’s not gonna change(hopefully) – you pretty much gotta put up with it. End of story.
Im my work I have to use Adobe InDesign because Scribus (its open source “concurrent”) doesn’t have vital functions that I use.
And InDesign layout is pretty boring and awful. The icons seems like they was washed out with some strong chemicals and lost all colors.
Unfortunately Blender also adopted this sad style.
It’s not sad, reason being it just encourages you to focus on what you’re doing instead of the UI. Same goes for the blackish BG and stuff. It just takes some getting used to – If I were blind, I’d still find whatever UI element I’m looking for in no time just bc I’ve done that for a crazy amount of time before. It’s like being a writer – they never look at the keyboard when typing, they just know where the damn button is.
Yeah, I know certain entrepreneurs that on purpose keep the workspace very, very boring, without colours, without pictures in the wall, without plant vases. And they say: “This way it’s more easy to force the employees to focus in their work, without distractions”.
But, you see, often Blender user are artists, not bureaucratic officials. And even bureaucratic officials desserve to see colours in their lives. Colours are not distractions, colours are joy.
@ Ilyak,
your pin pointing the main issue here. They wanted 2.8 be eassier for new people and even adopted left click as standard. Than how is hiding all settings going to help?
Ive started using blender more and more since v2.5 the big overhaul because than they dropped that silly horizontal layout. But now they introduce it again and hide all settings and options.
This will not be easy for new people. I know a lot of settings but im getting crazy of how much has changed, moved, deleted or whatever.
I think this overhaul is to much and has been minimised way to much. It looks really nice. But it lost its functionality. You need to click twice as much as before because all settings hide again after your click it.
Julien kasper showed an epic addon called PIE MENU ADDOn which can add what ever panel, tab setting you want where and works already in 2.80
He already showed the major issue on 2.80 during a blender conference, TO many items are hidden and he needs an addon to bring it all back like it was.
here the video and about the time he talked and showed it. Its a nice video and you him stumbling with the software.
https://youtu.be/qnYA9kbPeLs?t=1440
Did you hear about Affinity Publisher? You might be interested because it sounds as if you’re looking for alternatives to InDesign.
I don’t know the Adobe products so I can’t tell you if it’s what you’re looking for.
I just saw your answer and right now I open Affinity Publisher site.
Thanks a lot for this tip!!
Well Roberto, adobe apps never had colored icons as far as i can remember. Ive been using them for about 20 years now and photoshop always had monochrome icons. FOr that app it works. They dont have as much to show in the UI as blender. Its also works for Indesign.
Lets move this topic to why they are introducing horizontal layouts again? Why are all settings of tools hidden in menu now? Pre 2.8 all settings where visible in panels which where vertical and made it possible to show a lot of settings without the need to open and check each dropdown to see where settings are.
Another big issue why are the settings just left aligning. Why are some items all the way to the left, than a HUGE gab and then other settings are stuffed to the right side just above the outliner. Where you hardly see them.
Horizontal layout are bad, they read bad, new comers will have a real hard time trying to find settings and memorising where settings are. Even hardcore blender users have issues. I just saw this blender conference video of Julien Kasper, he has been working with bl 2.80 for a year now. As far as what i understood from him is that he still is getting used to it.
EVERY options, setting or what ever is stuffed into a little dropdown. This is HORRIBLE ui and ux
You won’t argue a major overhaul has long been overdue, will you? Especially given how many features have been introduced lately. And you somehow need to pack all that into a sleek user interface that neither distracts, nor makes you feel dizzy at the sight of overwhelmingly crammed toolbars. This is how all those popovers have taken over though I too think that move is rather controversial and counterproductive to boot though I see the reasoning and logic that back the UI/UX choices they’ve made. All in all, there’s no accounting for taste after all. Same goes for colors – I for one have made myself pretty comfortable with the monochromatic UI though don’t mind colors so long as they don’t distract me too much.
I could reply to your message, it think we can only reply x-amount of times.
Of course the ui backups the minimal design, but it sure does not back the ux. It made it worse i believe. Hidding all settings is way less inviting, you wont learn position/location of settings as fast if they are visible. Its a memory now and one with a lot variables.
Not good
As far as the icons, after 2 days i sort getting used to it. But they need a second color. Just like the toolbar. Those icons work and those have been designed be an internal blender dev/designer. The other icons are from a thread from BA
Why not use word than, that has nice colors… hahaha what a freaking annoying piece of software that is. TOday i had to make a template, i thought i was going insane on doing it. Crazy how much is broken, doesnt work or reacts just weird. Totally without freedom using that.
Im not sure what your specific reason is that you need to use Indesign. perhaps i can point an alternative if pin the specs you need
I am a big fan of monochrome icons and as soon as i saw the new tool bar i was posting a lot about the rest of the icons. But those icons are mode by a different designer, you see it clearly.
The icons need recognition, bcause newcomers are NOT able to make them apart. Its like coming into a new area where you live. You will recognise location by shape and color. Now you will need to recognise it by only shape, but these shapes are very tiny and sometimes bad designed. I find a lot icons not fit for there purpose.
Congrats, that looks really great, but first try and “loop and slide” ->mousewheel does not work as expected, it should increase the number of cuts, instead it simply zooms…does anyone have this issue?
If you use CTRL+R, then it behaves as always. But with the Active Tool you get a little rectangle (bottom left ) which which you can open and then you get a (“F6-like” ) panel where you can enter the number of cuts and more.
That little menu should open at the start i think. I miss the F6 function
I totally agree. First few times I didn’t even notice it;)
It does stay open when you use it more than once though, luckily. And if you only use it once you shouldn’t use the Active Tool anyway.